By Riana The morning started with early alarms in our arty Zagreb apartment, packed bags and a tram to the bus station. The bus took us from Zagreb to the more relaxed Split. It was interesting to see the landscapes change from luscious green mountainous areas to darker green areas reminiscent of Cape Fynbos or areas in the Klein Karoo back home. Closer to Split, white rock formations became a more regular sight. The bus dropped us off right on Split's harbour where you could see hundreds of different boats of different shapes and sizes. Across the harbour, the white walls and orange roofs of Diocletian's palace became visible. Split's history started in around 295 AD when the Roman Emperor, Diocletian, built his retirement palace in Split to 'escape the cares of the empire, cure his ... read more

By Christi Slovenians don't seem to be too fussed with breakfast, not in the bacon and eggs sense anyway, and few restaurants have breakfast menus. After nearly a week of yoghurt and pastries for breakfast, we felt like a change, and spotted a good breakfast cafe last night already. After this good start to the day, we headed to Metelkova. Metelkova is an arty neighbourhood near the train station. The walls are covered in intricate grafitti, wall art and strange sculptures. I'm sure the vibes are much different at night: imagine dimmed lights, lots of people and smoke and who knows what else. But it was nearly deserted when we were there - except for a skateboarder who tried to scare an old lady and got shouted at by another woman passing by! At 11am we ... read more

By Nicola After a hot day of walking near Vintgar Gorge we had plans for wearing shorts for our following hike! Wake up on Tuesday, recheck the weather- scrap the shorts idea! Warmer clothes required! The weather predicted a cold day in Bohinj, our destination for the day, but luckily only 0.1- 0.2mm of rain per hour! We packed our rain jackets, picked up some coffee and pastries to go and climbed onto the bus to Bohinj. We arrived to beautifully green surroundings with a lovely river flowing out of the lake under an arched stone bridge- what a lovely picture! On advice from the tourist info office, we started off around the lake and crossed a meadow to get to the start of the Mostnica Gorge hike. By this time it was raining and we ... read more

By Christi The Slovenia / Croatia holiday is finally here! Nicola and I left from OR Tambo yesterday at 14h, and had a very empty Qatar flight. We could move around and each have our own row, so we could even lie flat for a bit. We had a 2-hour layover in Doha in the midnight hours and then continued on to Zagreb, where we arrived shortly after 6am this morning. Not much sleep to go on, just the adrenalin of day 1 of a holiday! Big surprise in the bathroom where I found my classmate Louisa brushing her teeth.. they are also on holiday to Slovenia. Small world. We navigated the public transport to get from the airport to the bus station and from there to the train station, which we reached by 8am. We ... read more